Communications Law

The convergence of telecommunications, media and information technologies blurs the traditional boundaries between the public and private sector and the development of a new legal framework, which allows efficient competition, giving a large scope of services to the end consumers. Principles embodied in such a framework are: fair and effective competition; regulating access to publicly available electronic communications networks and services and interconnection arrangements in a way that ensures effective functioning of the market, where negotiating power differs and where, for the provision of some services, suppliers depend on infrastructures provided by others; providing a minimum of services to end users at an affordable price; encouraging interoperability in order to benefit customers; encouraging cooperation between network operators and manufacturers so that access to electronic communications services by disabled users can be made possible; proportionate data retention obligations on service providers and network operators; ensuring privacy with regard to the processing of personal information in relation to the provision of electronic communications services, etc.

Law and Internet Foundation experts prepared a number of legal consultations on different regulatory issues and participated in drafting a wide range of acts and secondary legislation supporting the activities of Communications Regulation Commission, Commission on Protection of Competition etc., – all of them with key significance for the acceleration of the process of liberalization of the Bulgarian telecommunications market.

In 2005 Law and Internet Foundation team created the new Electronic Communications Act in accordance with the regulatory framework of the European Union (acquis communautaire ‘2002) and the consecutive EU documents. In the following years the Foundation has actively participated in developing the secondary legislation in the field. It has conducted trainings on the implementation of the Electronic Communications Act and has supported on expert level the activities of particular interdepartmental work groups.

Nowadays, the experts of the Foundation consult the Ministry of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications in the implementation of the revised EU regulatory framework in e-Communications in 2009 on a national level and serve with their expertise in the field to the National Assembly in policy making processes.